- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; Two-Volume Set edition (7 Aug 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857023609
- ISBN-13: 978-1857023602
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 11.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 637,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
“This book is immensely entertaining”
Irish Times 28/3/98
Product Description
A fascinating biography of the woman champion motorboat racer of the 1920s who in the ’30s bought and became ‘ruler’ of an island in the British West Indies.
’Joe’ Carstairs was born in London in 1900, the daughter of a Scottish colonel and an American heiress. Educated in Connecticut, she returned to Europe in 1916 and drove ambulances for the Women’s Legion in France. She deserted her husband at the church door (marriage was a prerequisite of her coming into her $4million inheritance) and settled in England where she took up racing, established a boat yard at Cowes and won nearly every trophy going. In the 30s she started travelling widely, finally moving to the West Indies where she bought the island of Whale Cay. There she developed the island into a populated community, building everything from roads and schools to lighthouses and churches. Carstairs then suceeded in establishing hegemony over the 500 islanders, controlling not only their sexual morals but also their diet. In 1944 she built a deepwater harbour for the Royal Navy’s use and, without a word to her population, left the island to build warcraft in Florida, where she settled for 40 years, having run a steamship freightline and set up a chain of airports. Kate Summerscale’s brilliant biography brings out of obscurity a woman whose very boldness took her beyond fame and notoriety.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wadd a wonderful read!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Queen of Whale Cay (Paperback)
An excellent story of weird, wonderful and quite frankly warped behaviour - an obsession with a doll dressed in flying jackets and matelot outfits could not be made up - a terrific yet terrifying account of maverick behaviour from a lady who just could not and would not conform!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning - and no review can do it justice,
By moreredwine (Hampshire UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Queen of Whale Cay (Paperback)
What a wonderful delightful surprise this book has been. The Queen of Whale Cay - Joe - was brave, fiercely loyal and completely unique. There never has and never will be anyone like her. A packed life that inspires you to do more with your own. A loyalty to friends that reminds you to look up the ones you've left behind. This book brings Joe's past to life with scenes and stories you could never have imagined. And when I watch old movies from now on I'll recall the scenes from this book that were happening at the same time. For example Joe's encounters with Marlene Dietrich make me want to watch her (YouTube - that scene from Morocco 1930)movies again. For example scenes from World War 1 - Joe was driving an Ambulance aged just 16. For example Oscar Wildes niece - Dolly Wilde - Joe encountered her at 17 in Paris.
No review can do justice to the book. You'll just have to get it and see.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
scandalous, revealing, charming: a most unlikely life,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Queen of Whale Cay (Paperback)
Born in the same year as the Queen Mother (1900) the life of Marion Barbara ("Joe") Carstairs took a very different course. A wonderful and beautifully written account of an outrageous twentieth century personality. The story moves from the battlefields of World War I to an island paradise in the Bahamas via the louche and fast society of London in the Twenties. Those met on the way include Tallulah Bankhead, Dolly Wilde, Marlene Dietrich and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
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